What's on television this week?

Emma Willis and Rylan Clark present the denouement of the 17th series of the reality show. Picture: Channel 5

ENTERTAINMENT

Big Brother: Live Final

This 17th series of the reality show has been one of the raunchiest so far, with an international cast of aspiring stars all vying for most screen time. Finalists Alex Cannon from Liverpool, Andy West from Milton Keynes and Londoner Evelyn Ellis were just three of the contestants who entered the abode on day one.

By day five, DJ Victoria Jensen decided she’d had enough and walked, and two days later, Chicago kickboxer Andrew Tate was removed from the house. By day 11 things settled down as Marco Pierre White Junior was the first inmate to be evicted. Londoner Natalie Rowe was also voted out (day 18), and reality TV star Georgina Leigh Cantwell followed a week later.

Victoria’s sister Emma had repeatedly tried to break out, so producers gave her a helping hand on Day 31, and 24 hours later Folkestone dancer Charlie Doherty was also evicted. Two days after that, entrepreneur Chelsea Singh returned to civvy street.

If you’ve made it this far, chances are you’re already perched on the edge of your seat to see who wins the contest. And if you’re addicted and wondering how you can fill the void left by BB’s departure, fear not as the celebrity version launches on Thursday.

Channel 5, Tuesday, 9pm

Amazing Spaces Shed Of The Year

If you’ve caught previous programmes, you’ll be familiar with the format, but for the uninitiated, it’s simple. People nominate their backyard structures in various categories and the best of the best is crowned the winner. Only 32 have made it onto the shortlist of presenter George Clarke and he and his team will be casting their eye over them all.

In the first episode of a new run, those that fall into the Unique and Historic categories are under the spotlight. Among the ones featured is a shed that rotates 360 degrees so that it can follow the sun, and another that can reach 90mph once it’s on the road. Look out too for an Anglo Saxon longhouse and a Vietnam war bunker in Staffordshire.

Channel 4, Friday, 8pm

DRAMA

Brief Encounters

Set in the unemployment-hit Sheffield of 1982, Brief Encounters, which started four weeks ago, charts the lives of a group of women as they attempt to spice up their existences and earn extra money by hosting parties selling exotic lingerie and “marital aids”.

Downton Abbey veteran Penelope Wilton plays Pauline, a housewife who loves her social-climbing husband Brian but is unfulfilled by her role in life. “Pauline lives this solitary life, but she comes to realise with the friends she has made through the parties that she has a support, which she is very grateful for,” says Wilton.

Pauline would have loved to have been a mother, and her relationship with Dawn gives her an opportunity to create a sort of surrogate family. In this week’s episode, she will no doubt have to offer Dawn a shoulder to cry on and a few well-chosen comforting words as her lodger learns that Russell is beginning to get cold feet about their wedding.

STV, tomorrow, 9pm

DOCUMENTARY

Hugh’s War on Waste: The Battle Continues

In this follow-up to last November’s two-part documentary, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (above) continues his mission to reduce the amount of waste in the UK. This time he is on the case of coffee giants who may not be doing the right thing after that empty cup drops into their bin.

We get through 2.5 billion cardboard coffee cups every year in the United Kingdom, and Fearnley-Whittingstall is stunned when he finds out 99 per cent of them are sent to landfill or incineration. So he asks the likes of Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero why.

BBC One, Thursday, 9pm